According to news reports, “(Sonia) Roco, wife (sic) of the late senator Raul Roco, said she had no regrets joining the elections but expressed disappointment that the present system did not allow a new-comer like her to be in the Senate.”
The system is not to blame. The survey firms – SWS and Pulse Asia – are to blame.
People always vote newcomers to the Senate – from Ninoy Aquino to Ramon Revilla to Lito Lapid to Gringo Honasan to Lt. Trillanes. But the survey firms nowadays make it difficult for newcomers to win as senators unless one is already popular, like a movie star.
More than a year before senatorial elections, the survey firms already take polls on who the people would vote for. Since there aren’t any candidates yet, the people will choose from among the re-electionists, the congressmen, the movie stars, the news anchors or the Cabinet members. Or, the pollsters would give the people a list consisting of the same kinds of people.
The pollsters did not expect Trillanes to run so they did not include him in the choices. Later, the SWS and Pulse Asia predicted that Trillanes would not make it. He was No. 16 in the April and May surveys.
SWS and Pulse Asia are the new political gods. They can make and unmake potential candidates. It would truly be for the good of everyone if these pollsters would refrain from making any surveys of voter preference for the Senate until after the candidates had filed their certificates of candidacy.
The pollsters can take polls anytime but they should not be allowed to publish them until the start of the campaign period.
This way, newcomers can have a fighting chance. There is a great need to put people in the Senate other than those already there or comedians or movie stars or news anchors or basketball players or children of senators.